Deadly Obsession- Chapter 19 (Patreon)

Romelo has done some sick and twisted things in his life. And I have never been an exception to that rule. But some part of me truly believed that there was a fine line between me and the people he tortured. But today, my run in with the police seems to have pushed him over that line.

My legs are strapped down to the legs of the chair I’m in. And both of my arms are in between two metal plates that close together. Romelo is sitting across from me, just staring. He isn’t speaking. Barely blinks, and only breathes silently. I keep my gaze down, and my expression blank. I’ve been crying, but I keep my mouth shut because begging will only make him angry. And right now he is abnormally calm.

I know exactly what he’s about to do. He’s told me about it on several occasions. He shifts in his seat, and I immediately tense. He silently moves and his fingers are on the wrench, and he begins slowly spinning it so that both of the metal plates are closing snug against my arms. He’s going to break my bones.

I feel his fingers under my chin, and he lifts my head so that our eyes meet. He gives me a smile.

“You’re so quiet,” he says softly. I still don’t respond. I think the idea of Romelo’s love has officially left my imagination. It’s not possible. I know that now. And it brings me nothing but despair. I can feel my mind and body slipping into depression.

It feels like nothing else matters. Nothing. Not even the unconditional love that I used to have for this man. This selfish man that at one point in his life cared for me. Killed for me. And loved me. But his parents fucked up everything about him. They destroyed any hopes that he had at being any kind of normal. Now he’s nothing but a rabid dog that Luca has on a very tight leash.

He leans over the table, and kisses me. Soft and gentle. I know he is insane in this moment. His emotional state is unstable and his choice interactions are random. But I kiss him back anyway. Pretending that for the last moment in my life, that we are normal, and he loves me. He pulls away, and stares into my eyes.

“Anything you want to say?”

There is a lot I want to say. But for some reason, my mind is slipping. My consciousness is dying. Everything I’ve held onto for any form of hope and dream, is disintegrating before my eyes. Because I can see the pure malice and hate in Romelo’s gaze. He’s never loved me. He’s loved how much I love him. I’ve loved him more than anything in this world. He was my savior. He was my everything. And now, he’s nothing. Nothing but a distant memory. It’s taken me this long to realize it, but that last thing that has had me anchoring onto life dissipates in a split second, and I’m gone.

My mind goes blank, and I go off my emotions alone as I do my next action. I jerk my head out of his fingers, trying to bite them. He easily dodges and a look of anger crosses his features. He rears back to slap me, but I know his movements as if they were my own. I dodge his hand, and with all my might, bring my head down on the metal tool that my arms are caught between. A loud thud fills the room, and excruciating pain fills my skull as the metal bites into my flesh. I feel blood trickling down my face, and smile, repeating the action. More pain. More blood. I don’t care though.

I bring my head down, but a pair of hands catch me. I struggle, but the world around me is going blurry and I’m dizzy as hell. My frontal lobe is in so much pain. There’s so much blood, it’s beginning to seep into my eyes.

I feel the hands roughly jerking my head so that I’m looking at the ceiling, and there is cloth being placed on it. No. That’s not what I want. I jerk and scream, successfully ridding my face of the cloth. Blood. More blood. I don’t even realize the piercing scream that’s escaping my throat until my throat begins to burn from exertion. The hands are on my head once again trying to get me to stop, but the blood is letting me slip right through them.

I look through my blurred vision right at the cause of all of this anguish and rage. This feeling that I’ve been keeping bottled up for all of these years and is finally deciding to slip through. And I scream, and scream. And for the first time in my life, I see something in those cold blue eyes that I have never seen before. Fear. Of me.

It makes me happy. I can see why he loves fear of others. It gives you a control over someone that they no longer hold. The joy bubbles up inside of me, leaving my mouth with a small chuckle. And as the seconds pass, the amusement grows, and I laugh loud and excitedly. With a gash in my forehead, and blood running down my face.

* * * * *

Romelo

How far is too far? For me, there has never been a too far. Just not far enough. That point that you reach, where you do the most primal thing to survive, that’s far enough. But for me, that was a good thing. It meant that I would see the true self of someone. And not just their true self, but the truth. Any information I was searching for would come flowing forth.

As I think back on my life, I’ve never felt fear. I’ve felt uneasy. I’ve even felt nervous. Shocked, and surprised even. But never have I felt fear. The utter hopelessness that fills your gut, and there is nothing that you can even do to change the situation. The thing I instill in others. Not that others instill in me.

Two things I have never doubted in my life, all blew up in a matter of seconds. I broke her. Actually, I destroyed her. I look beyond the one way glass at Charlie. My Charlie. Her arms are wrapped in a straight jacket, chained to the walls. Her eyes are empty. She’s staring at nothing. And I flinch each and every time I look at the stitching now on her forehead.

Charlie has never tried to kill herself in our time together. Never. She’s always seen something in me that no one else has seen. She believed it was love. But she snapped. And I have no idea what to do anymore. I had never been so terrified than I was in that moment. There was so much blood, and I couldn’t keep a steady hold on her due to that fact. She just kept smashing her head into the workbench. Even when that gaping hole was there, she was trying.

Did I push her too far?

“Romelo!” I look up and see Luca making his way towards me.

“What are you doing here?” I ask. I never called him and told him what happened.

“I basically keep this hospital running, Rome,” He says in amusement. He stands next to me, looking through the glass.

“Thank you,” I murmur. He didn’t have to come here. He could have let me handle this alone. But he truly regards Nicolai and I as his brothers. Luca is silent as he stares at her. When I look at him, I see pity in his gaze. Something I have never seen unless it was regarded to his wife.

“You broke her,” he says. He looks at me with a sad smile.

“I know that gaze. That emptiness in her eyes. You broke whatever that fine line was that was keeping her sane. I know, because Elise once looked like that. Sometimes she still does. When she thinks I’m not there or in the room. That small sliver of sanity that they hold onto as a part of our lives... it’s fragile.”

The more he speaks, the more my grip on reality is slipping. Call it my uncontrollable need to be in constant control, but I just can’t bring myself to believe that I pushed her past the brink of sanity. She has always been anchored to me by her irrational love for me. If her sanity is gone, what does that mean about her love for me?

I look up when I notice her movement beyond the glass. She’s struggling, trying to get free of her bonds. Tears are running freely down her face, and she’s screaming in frustration.

“I did this?” I say mostly to myself, but Luca hears me.

“You did,” he says. I stare in confusion.

“I think the real question is, how do you feel about it now. I’ll be honest, I was a little worried about the girl when you told me about her even existing in your life. I’ve never known you to entertain one for so long.”

He looks at me, with a concerned gaze.

“So how is this affecting you, Rome?” he asks. I break his gaze, looking back through the glass at Charlie. I feel... helpless? Sad? Regret? I’m unfamiliar with the feelings that are coursing through me in this moment.

“I... don’t know…,” I say. Because I don’t. I try and feel anger, but it’s just so out of place as I gaze at Charlie. The bandage around her head is beginning to darken from the crimson staining it from the other side.

“Sedation! Sedation!” I look up and hear the other nurses running down the hall, and entering the room to put that drug in Charlie’s system. Her struggles are an unfamiliar sight. Something that I’ve never seen in my life. She’s never struggled so... crazed.

“What do i do?” I look at Luca in confusion. He seems to be all too familiar with this. He stares at Charlie, and shrugs.

“I don’t know her like you do,” he says.

“The best thing you can do, is earn her trust back. But I know what kind of person you are, Romelo. Change isn’t in your nature.” I grimace at his last sentence. He’s right. It isn’t. Even when things between Charlie and I came out into the open, I never changed. Never.

“We can always get rid of her,” he says. He’s testing me. I immediately tense at his words, but quickly mask my reaction. He chuckles next to me.

“We can fake her death if you don’t want to do it foreal.”

“No.. She didn’t want that,” I murmur, not even realizing what I just said until it’s out of my mouth. I look at Luca, and he looks at me, and there is a small tinge of shock in his eyes. Maybe it’s my regard for her feelings, and wants, but he doesn’t say anything. He simply looks back to the glass with a small smile on his face.

“Well. The decision is yours, Romelo.” Then his tone takes on a serious one.

“As long as it doesn’t interfere with your work,” he says. I nod my head in understanding. He places a hand on my shoulder.

“Keep me updated on things,” he says before walking away. Gone as quickly as he came.

* * * * *

I look up as soon as I hear the hesitant feet. Something must be wrong. The nurse walks in and has a look of fear plastered on her face as she approaches me.

“She’s... awake.” I eye her, not blinking. And it makes her nervous.

“She isn’t responding to speech, she doesn’t really respond to anything, including motor reactions. But her wound wasn’t too deep. It’s just a small fracture, nothing beyond the frontal lobe was damaged,” she says. I stand. I immediately notice her hands tighten around the clipboard.

“Where is she?” I ask.

“I don’t know that it’s a good idea for you to see her in this state, her cog- Ah!” I snatch the nurse by her shirt, bringing her in close to my face. I let my rage pour out of me as I growl my sentence.

“Take me to her. Or you will be the next one in this damn hospital,” I snap.

“Romelo.” I look up, and Dr. Shotwell is standing in the archway of the waiting room. I glare at him, and let go of his nurse. She immediately stumbles away, her breathing erratic.

“Follow me,” he says turning away from me and walking up the hallway.

“I must warn you. Her psychotic break, was triggered by you. So don’t be shocked if she doesn’t respond well to your presence. We have her heavily sedated, but she is aware and conscious. Her arms are restrained, since she keeps trying to tear her skin and stitches,” he says. I flinch at that. Never have I ever marred her face. And for good reason too. I love her face. Her flawless skin. Her soft cheeks. And now she’s fighting to do just that.

We stop in front of a room, with the door closed.

“Please. Be patient,” he says warily. Dr. Shotwell and I have had our fair share of run ins. He knows my personality. I nod my head, and walk past him as he pushes the door open. The room is dim, and when I look at the bed, Charlie is sitting upright in it. Her eyes are heavy, but her gaze follows the sound of the door. She looks at me, and for once just stares. I don’t know if it’s from the drugs or her psychotic break, but she just glares me down.

“Hey,” I whisper, taking a seat next to her bed. I rub her legs softly, trying to give her some form of comfort. Her eyes follow the movement, and travel back up to my face. I take note that her hands are tensing, and she’s trying to move them but can’t due to the fact that they strapped her down.

I reach out, placing my hand on her cheek, and rubbing my thumb softly over the bandage.

“What the hell were you thinking?” I whisper as I look at the thick gauze. I thought her moment of rebellion was just that. Rebellion. But she surprised me. She actually scared me. She was busting her head open all on her own, beating it against the metal. The blood was preventing me from doing anything to stop her. She could have killed herself. And she was laughing about it.

Her deep blue gaze is focused on me. She doesn’t blink. She just stares. Her hands are still struggling, but to no effect. It must bed the drugs in her system.

I open my mouth to threaten her. To tell her something that will make her listen to me, but I can’t think of anything. So I close it, and sit back in my seat. Her gaze follows me. She licks her lips, and opens her mouth trying to say something. But it comes out a jumbled mess from her grogginess.

“Don’t speak,” I say. Her gaze never falters. She closes her eyes for a second, and takes deep breaths.

“H..h..hh..” She’s still trying to speak, and I sit up in my seat.

“Charlie. I said-”

“Hate you.” Her whisper is so soft, and so broken, yet I hear it. I hear it as clear as day. There are no tears in her eyes as she speaks. There is no fear or regret. She stares me down, taking in my reaction of her confession. That the only person left in my life that truly loved me, now hates me.